1 My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart guard my precepts.
2 For they shall set before you length of days, and years of life, and peace.
3 Let not mercy and truth abandon you: encircle them around your throat, and inscribe them on the tablets of your heart.
4 And so shall you discover grace and good discipline, in the sight of God and men.
5 Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend upon your own prudence.
6 In all your ways, consider him, and he himself will direct your steps.
7 Do not seem wise to yourself. Fear God, and withdraw from evil.
8 Certainly, it shall be health to your navel, and refreshment to your bones.
9 Honor the Lord with your substance, and give to him from the first of all your fruits,
10 and then your storehouses will be filled with abundance, and your presses shall overflow with wine.
11 My son, do not discard the discipline of the Lord, and do not fall away when you are corrected by him.
12 For whomever the Lord loves, he corrects, and just as a father does with a son, he wins him over.
13 Blessed is the man who finds wisdom and who advances to prudence.
14 Her acquisition is better than trading in silver, and her fruit is better than the first and purest gold.
15 She is more precious than all riches, and all that can be desired cannot prevail in comparison to her.
16 Length of days is at her right hand, and at her left hand is wealth and glory.
17 Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceful.
18 She is a tree of life to those who overtake her, and he who shall take hold of her is blessed.
19 The Lord founded the earth on wisdom. He secured the heavens with prudence.
20 By his wisdom, the abyss erupted and the clouds increased with dew.
21 My son, let not these things move away from your eyes. Preserve law as well as counsel.
22 And so shall there be life in your soul and grace in your voice.
23 Then you shall walk confidently in your way, and your feet will not stumble.
24 When you slumber, you shall not fear. When you rest, your sleep also will be sweet.
25 Do not fear unexpected terror, nor the power of the impious falling upon you.
26 For the Lord will be at your side, and he will guard your feet, so that you may not be seized.
27 Do not prevent him who is able from doing good. When you are able, do good yourself too.
28 Do not say to your friend: “Go away, and then return. Tomorrow I will give to you.” When you are able to do so, give in the present.
29 Do not undertake evil against your friend, even though he has trust in you.
30 Do not contend against a man without cause, even though he has done no evil to you.
31 Do not rival an unjust man, and do not imitate his ways.
32 For everyone who ridicules is an abomination to the Lord, and his communication is for the simple.
33 Destitution in the house of the impious is from the Lord. But the habitations of the just shall be blessed.
34 He will ridicule those who ridicule, but he will bestow grace upon the mild.
35 The wise will possess glory. The exaltation of the foolish is disgraceful.
1 Listen, sons, to the discipline of a father, and pay attention, so that you may know prudence.
2 I will bestow upon you a good gift. Do not relinquish my law.
3 For I, too, was the son of my father, tender and an only son in the sight of my mother.
4 And he taught me, and he also said: “Let your heart accept my words. Keep my precepts, and you shall live.
5 Obtain wisdom, obtain prudence. May you neither forget, nor turn away from, the words of my mouth.
6 Do not send her away, and she will guard you. Love her, and she will preserve you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is to obtain wisdom, and, with all that you possess, to acquire prudence.
8 Grasp her, and she will exalt you. You will be glorified by her, when you have embraced her.
9 She will bestow upon your head an increase in graces, and she will protect you with a noble crown.
10 Listen, my son, and accept my words, so that years of life may be multiplied for you.
11 I will demonstrate to you the way of wisdom. I will lead you along the paths of equity.
12 When you have entered by these, your steps will not be constrained, and when running, you will have no obstacle.
13 Take hold of discipline. Do not dismiss it. Guard it, for it is your life.
14 Do not delight in the paths of the impious, nor permit the way of evil-doers to please you.
15 Take flight from it. Do not pass close to it. Turn away and abandon it.
16 For they do not sleep, unless they have done evil. And their sleep is quickly taken away from them, unless they have overthrown.
17 They eat the bread of impiety, and they drink the wine of iniquity.
18 But the path of the just is like a shining light: it advances and increases, even to the day of completion.
19 The way of the impious is darkened. They do not know where they may fall.
20 My son, pay attention to my sermons, and incline your ear to my eloquent words.
21 Let them not recede from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them and health to all that is flesh.
23 Preserve your heart with all watchfulness, for life proceeds from this.
24 Remove from yourself a corrupt mouth, and let detracting lips be far from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, and let your eyelids precede your steps.
26 Direct the path of your feet, and all your ways shall be secure.
27 Turn aside, neither to the right, nor to the left; yet turn your foot away from evil. For the Lord knows the ways that are on the right, and truly, those that are on the left are perverse. But he himself will make your courses straight. Then your journey will advance in peace.
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37 And all the army gathered together, and they ascended to Mount Zion.
38 And they saw the sanctuary deserted, and the altar profaned, and the gates burned, and weeds growing up in the courts, as in a forest or as on the mountains, and the adjoining chambers demolished.
39 And they rent their garments, and they made a great wailing, and they placed ashes on their heads.
40 And they fell to the ground on their faces, and they sounded the trumpets of alarm, and they cried out toward heaven.
41 Then Judas numbered men to fight against those who were in the stronghold, until they had cleansed the holy places.
42 And he chose priests without blemish, whose will held to the law of God.
43 And they cleansed the holy places, and they took away the stones of defilement to an unclean place.
44 And he considered the altar of holocausts, which had been profaned, as to what he should do with it.
45 And a good counsel fell upon them, to destroy it, lest it might become a reproach to them, because the Gentiles had defiled it; so they demolished it.
46 And they stored the stones in the mountain house, in a fitting place, until there should come a prophet, who would provide an answer about these.
47 Then they took whole stones, according to the law, and they built a new altar, according to that which was before.
48 And they rebuilt the holy places and the things that were in the inner parts of the temple, and they sanctified the temple and the courts.
49 And they made new holy vessels, and they brought the lampstand, and the altar of incense, and the table into the temple.
50 And they placed incense on the altar, and they lit the lamps, which were on the lampstand, and they gave light in the temple.
51 And they placed the bread on the table, and they hung up the veils, and they completed all the works which they had begun.
52 And they arose before the morning, on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, (which is the month of Kislev) in the one hundred and forty-eighth year.
53 And they offered sacrifice, according to the law, on the new altar of holocausts that they made.
54 According to the time and according to the day, on which the Gentiles had contaminated it, on the same day, it was renewed with canticles, and lutes, and lyres, and cymbals.
55 And all the people fell upon their faces, and they adored, and they blessed, toward heaven, him that had prospered them.
56 And they kept the dedication of the altar for eight days, and they offered holocausts with joy, and sacrifices of salvation and praise.
57 And they adorned the face of the temple with crowns of gold and small shields. And they dedicated the gates and the adjoining chambers, and they set up doors on them.
58 And there was very great rejoicing among the people, and the disgrace of the Gentiles was averted.
59 And Judas, and his brothers, and all the assembly of Israel decreed that the day of the dedication of the altar must be kept in its time, from year to year, for eight days, from the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev, with joy and gladness.
60 And they built up, at that time, Mount Zion, with high walls and strong towers all around, lest the Gentiles should at any time come and trample upon it, as they did before.
61 And he stationed a garrison there, to keep it, and he fortified it, in order to guard Bethzur, so that the people might have a fortification opposite the face of Idumea.
88 Quicken thou me according to thy mercy: and I shall keep the testimonies of thy mouth.
89 LAMED. For ever, O Lord, thy word standeth firm in heaven.
90 Thy truth unto all generations: thou hast founded the earth, and it continueth.
91 By thy ordinance the day goeth on: for all things serve thee.
92 Unless thy law had been my meditation, I had then perhaps perished in my abjection.
93 Thy justifications I will never forget: for by them thou hast given me life.
94 I am thine, save thou me: for I have sought thy justifications.
1 Now the Spirit has clearly said that, in the end times, some persons will depart from the faith, paying attention to spirits of error and the doctrines of devils,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their consciences seared,
3 prohibiting marriage, abstaining from foods, which God has created to be accepted with thanksgiving by the faithful and by those who have understood the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving;
5 for it has been sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer.
6 By proposing these things to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished by words of faith, and by the good doctrine that you have secured.
7 But avoid the silly fables of old women. And exercise yourself so as to advance in piety.
8 For the exercise of the body is somewhat useful. But piety is useful in all things, holding the promise of life, in the present and in the future.
9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of full acceptance.
10 For this reason we labor and are maligned: because we hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, most especially of the faithful.
11 Instruct and teach these things.
12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example among the faithful in word, in behavior, in charity, in faith, in chastity.
13 Until I arrive, attend to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine.
14 Do not be willing to neglect the grace that is within you, which was given to you through prophecy, with the imposition of the hands of the priesthood.
15 Meditate on these things, so that your progress may be manifest to all.
16 Pay attention to yourself and to doctrine. Pursue these things. For in doing so, you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.
